The Sword Falls
by Whiskers10
Summary: After Tempest, Jaina Solo faces her most difficult challenge.
1. Chapter 1

The Sword Falls 

Jaina Solo removed her helmet almost immediately upon landing on the asteroid base that her target had landed on, placing it in the empty copilot's seat of the Hapan-made passenger cruiser. The ship, which was normally supposed to be crewed by two sentients, had been a part of Jaina's life since she was around 15. It had seen frequent adventures by a group of young Jedi Knights that included herself, Zekk, the rare Wookiee Jedi Lowbacca, the aristocratic and now horribly scarred—both mentally and physically—Raynar Thul… Her train of thought slowed down as she began to think of the other two members of that group. Tenel Ka. Jacen.

It was those two people that she thought of last that brought her here to this barren planetoid in the middle of nowhere. Her head sunk into the glove covering her right hand, wishing that the events that had transpired in the past twelve years hadn't brought her to this place at this time. She wished that she didn't have to do what she would more than likely be forced to do.

She would—if she were forced to—kill her own brother.

The road to this decision had not been an easy one to take, but now it seemed to be the only one that she could travel. Tenel Ka, the other member of her group of friends that she had difficulty thinking about, was now lying in the emergency care unit of a Hapan hospital at the moment, her little daughter by her side. It was Jaina's own brother that had been responsible for the attack. Jacen had tried to murder Tenel Ka. The woman that he had fallen in love with from the very beginning was comatose by his hand. There were others as well: Aliyn Vel, the bounty hunter daughter of Boba Fett who had been brutally beaten to death by Jacen during a lengthy interrogation; a segment of the Corellian population on Coruscant, whose freedom had been taken away from them as they sat in internment camps; and the crew of the freighter that Jacen had ordered her to fire upon at the beginning of the Corellian Blockade. Jaina had refused to fire upon the defenseless ship, and then Jacen had done the evil deed himself.

She stood up from the pilot's chair of the _Rock Dragon_, finally ready to leave the vessel and go into the heart of the asteroid and face the one man that she had never expected to face in combat. She removed the gloves from her hands before placing them beside the helmet in the copilot's seat. She checked her lightsaber, ensuring that the weapon was in its proper position upon her belt. She pressed a button next to the door, hearing a slight hiss as the air pressure quickly equalized when the entranceway opened.

As soon as she stepped out of the ship the overwhelming aura of the dark side hit her, putting her slightly off balance for a second as she struggled to adjust to it. For the briefest of moments her concentration was totally shattered, rendering her ability to use the Force hampered for that small amount of time. It finally returned as her will exerted itself to overcome the power of the Dark Side. With this major obstacle gone for the moment, she was prepared as she would ever be for the challenge ahead.

It didn't take her long to find Jacen inside of the asteroid complex as soon as she started looking. She could sense him—or whatever he had turned into—almost instantly after managing to break through the massive interference that the corruption inside of the asteroid. He was no longer the innocent boy that had been fond of both telling horrendous jokes and animals that she knew from her childhood. Instead she sensed a deep pool of dark side energy, a fountain that sprayed hatred and—perhaps most disturbing—a sense of unwavering purpose and dark will. Despite the biological relationship between them, it was not her brother.

He was standing over a body as she entered the room that contained him, his position and the distance between them made it difficult for Jaina to see his latest victim. He was clad in his black Galactic Alliance Guard uniform, a stark contrast to what he was known to wear in the past. It was an ideal uniform for a dark sider, she thought as she watched, trying to determine whom he had just killed.

"So, they sent you to kill me," Jacen finally spoke, his back still turned to Jaina. "Out of all the people in the Order, it's you."

"I don't want to kill you, Jacen," Jaina replied, hoping that her attempts would work. "Come back to Ossus with me, we can get you help there."

"They won't understand why I've done all of this!" Jacen exclaimed. "Everything that I've done is for the good of the galaxy, for peace."

"So says the man that started two wars," Jaina replied. Four years previously, Jacen had been the leader of a Jedi squadron that included herself that had attacked a Chiss supply depot. That action had led to the Chiss military response to wipe out the Killiks. The second war that Jacen had started was still waging, a war of secession that pitted the Corellians against the Galactic Alliance.

"It was all to stop the things that would come to pass," Jacen answered, finally turning around to face her.

Jaina gasped as she finally saw the outline of the body. Red hair flowed onto the floor, obscuring the face of Jacen's victim. _Aunt Mara?_ Jaina thought as she first spied the body, wondering how her aunt had flown in to this place from Coruscant with enough time to fight Jacen and then be killed by him before she arrived. It had to be someone else that looked like her aunt that had died earlier.

It was then that the physical signs of the dark side had begun to manifest themselves onto her brother. His once brown eyes now glowed with a supernatural flame. She had seen this look before, but never from her own brother.

"You plan to stop me, don't you?" Jacen asked, his voice a mixture of sadness and anger. "I can't let that happen. I beg you, leave this place now. I don't want to kill you." _Just like I couldn't kill Allana_, he mentally added.

The mental image of Tenel Ka's young daughter flashed into Jaina's mind as Jacen finished his half-hearted plea for her to leave the asteroid lair. She wondered why that image would come to her now for a few seconds before finally figuring out why. Allana was Jacen's daughter! The thought stunned her for a second, made her wonder why Jacen and Tenel Ka had kept the secret hidden for so long. And then she thought that Allana wasn't using "Aunt Jaina" to mean a trusted family friend inside of the Hapan medical center.

"I won't leave, Jacen," she replied. "Not without you leaving here with me."

"I warned you Jaina," Jacen icily said as he reached for his lightsaber. He thumbed the weapon on, sending an electric green blade springing into existence. "Yet you wouldn't listen. This is the way it has to be…"

Jaina Solo regretfully removed her own lightsaber from her belt. She had tried to solve this peacefully, yet Jacen had quickly shot every suggestion down with ease. She ignited her own violet blade.

Jacen chuckled as he saw his sister assume a defensive position, himself pacing around the area near the fallen corpse of his Sith Master. "Now, now, Jaina," he taunted as he slipped into a fighting stance that heavily favored aggressive moves, "you wouldn't kill your own brother, would you?"

"Both of my brothers died at Myrkr," she replied. "I just didn't know about my twin falling there until now."

The two combatants circled each other for a while, studying each other's moves and stance, trying to find a weakness. Then, the battle began.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Sword Falls**

**Part II**

"Both of my brothers died at Myrkr," Jaina replied to Jacen's taunt. "I just didn't know about you until now."

Jacen bit back a response to this response, slowly walking his way around the room, never taking his eyes off of Jaina. Just a few weeks previously, he had been disowned by his own father, a man that was too weak to realize that sometimes the ends did justify the means.

Jaina pivoted in her position, continuing to hold the defensive stance that she had adopted just a few seconds ago, the violet light of her lightsaber slightly illuminating the simple jumpsuit that she wore. She had meant what she had just said about the disastrous Myrkr mission that happened around the midway point of the Yuuzhan Vong War, for she had seen it with her own eyes. Her younger brother Anakin had died physically at the hands of numerous Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen, on the other hand, had been spirited away by Vergere, a Fosh that called herself a Jedi of the Old Republic and had been twisted into what he had now become. She only wished that she would have seen the changes in him before it was too late. Or had she? She thought. Had she seen the gradual slide and chose to ignore it?

Jaina knew that if she were to survive this fight—even if Jacen could be subdued instead of killed—that this question would haunt her for the rest of her life.

She didn't have time to think very much after that, as Jacen finally made the first move in the battle. Utilizing the Force, he crossed the few meters between them in a quick leap, his green blade slightly blurring in the air. Jaina rolled out of the way of the overhead slash, bringing her own lightsaber around towards him. With a crackle of energy, the two blades met for the first time.

"You'll have to do better," Jacen chided her, exerting himself in an attempt to sink the two blades into the flesh of his sister. Jaina struggled against the slightly superior strength of her opponent, every centimeter that she gained was soon lost as Jacen pressed whatever advantage he could find.

The stalemate didn't last long. Both combatants pushed against each other, using the moment to retreat. The brief respite didn't last long, however, as Jacen brought his lightsaber down into a diagonal slash.

Jaina easily blocked this attack, backing away from Jacen as he continued to attack her. While it was true that Jacen was far more skilled in lightsaber combat than Jaina, she wasn't a bad duelist by any definition of the word.

The two had fought before, years ago inside of the Shadow Academy. Back then, their true identities had been masked by holographic projectors. They had been evenly matched then. They were evenly matched now. Jacen had the technique. Jaina had the motivation.

After a few minutes of dueling in which none of the combatants held the advantage, it was Jacen that drew the figurative first blood. Jaina had been temporarily backed against the wall by him, and the burning brand of his lightsaber opened up a small cut on her left arm. She cried out in pain and backed away from her brother as far as she could as a streak of fire ran under her skin.

Jacen let loose a sadistic smirk—an evil mirror of the famous lopsided grins that the Solos were known for—as he closed the short gap between them, his lightsaber blazing. Seeing Jaina wounded had put part of his twisted mind at ease, for he had already wounded her. Killing her wouldn't be that large of step afterwards…

Jaina reached out with her wounded arm towards Jacen, a small pain shooting out from her wound as the arm extended. The twirling green mass of Jacen's lightsaber blade came dangerously close to her fingers before being violently torn away from the immediate area as Jacen was thrown across the room, hitting the floor several meters away. She focused on her slight wound for a second, letting the Force lessen the pain in it, enabling her to wield her lightsaber doubled-handed again. She stepped away from the wall, slowly walking towards her brother.

"Give up, Jacen," she said, trying once more to get him to yield. She watched as her brother easily stood up from his position.

"I've seen what that will do to the galaxy," he replied, picking himself off of his hand and knees. He let his left hand drift towards her, drawing all of his fear, anger, and hatred, through it. All of those negative emotions emerged from his fingertips in electric-white sparks. They flew through the air, soaring towards Jaina in a barely controlled arc, the tendrils of electricity filling the air with a slight stench.

She reacted to this attack, instinctively bringing her lightsaber up to block the dark side created lightning. The ends of the attack hit her lightsaber hard, driving it back a few centimeters before Jaina regained control over her weapon.

Jacen concentrated harder on his attack as the standstill continued, manipulating the dark side nexus that he was on into increasing the intensity of the storm that was swarming around the lightsaber of his enemy. It was of no use, however. She stood firm amidst the lightning that arced around her, seemingly immune to it all. He growled in frustration as he ended his attack, clutching his fist tightly as he stood up. How could this be! He thought. He knew that he was always stronger than her, he had been trained not only by the Jedi, but by countless other Force users before finally accepting tutelage from the Sith Lady Lumiya. He had been the one to achieve untold of power at the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War, not her!

"Very good," he had no choice but to compliment her as he retrieved his fallen lightsaber. "But not good enough!" he yelled as he ignited his blade, charging towards her. He could feel the dark side being twisted by his own will, feeding his muscles with enough energy to both increase his own strength as well as quicken his reaction time. Every attack maddened him, however, as his opponent somehow found a way to evade them with ease.

It wasn't as easy as it looked, however. Jaina knew this for a fact as she ducked and parried the angry strikes that lashed out at her. She spun away from Jacen, the Force guiding her lightsaber behind her back to block a weak slash. The counterattack was equally swift, but far more damaging, opening up a decent sized gash in Jacen's right side.

She watched as Jacen gave a cry of pain and then backed away from her. One of his hands clutched at the wound—which, although painful, wasn't mortal—leaving only one of his hands on his lightsaber. His fiery eyes shot angry looks at her, chilling her to the bone. There was no way that her brother would have ever glared at her with such malice, such hate. It only served to remind her that it was only her brother's likeness that she was fighting; the good person that had been Jacen Solo had died years before.

He winced in pain as he slowly removed his hand from the wound, exposing a small amount of blood that hadn't been cauterized instantly from the heat of lightsaber blade. Jaina briefly considered attacking him in this weakened state, but the feeling of unease still clung to her. The thought of asking him to surrender one more time flashed through her mind, but his eyes told her that that possibility would never happen. It was then that she finally realized that only one of them would be leaving this place alive.

Jacen painfully returned to a complete fighting stance, using the pain that coursed through his body to "focus" himself upon his objective: the complete destruction of his sister. He had undergone worse pain before, he had been Embraced by it years previously, he had learned to control it and "befriend" it. Besides, he had survived Lomi Plo's attack nearly five years previously, and this new wound would definitely not require any cloned organs.

Ignoring the flames that shot up his side as he moved, Jacen brought his lightsaber up in a diagonal slash that Jaina was barely able to block. Anger clouding his mind, he continued striking at her. With every parried attack he was left wishing that he could once again tap into that well of power that he had used to defeat the true Supreme Overlord. He also realized that he wasn't attacking her out of necessity now, the need to prevent her from stopping him was replaced with a bloodlust. He wanted to kill her now.

He finally was able to score an almost equal blow a minute later, his own blade slicing deeply into her side, possibly a worse wound than the one he had. She stumbled for a second, her own actions mimicking those that he had gone through. Yet she didn't have the fine control of pain that he had learned over the years. The fight had been relatively even until that moment, and as Jaina sunk to her knees in pain, Jacen stepped towards her, ready to end the battle then. His blade hummed as he rose it, ready to decapitate her on the spot. Then the warning blared through the Force, forcing him to raise his bloodied hand towards her, channeling his power out through it. Like they had done during a duel on Mustafar decades previously, the two Force pushes met between the two combatants, each opponent pouring as much energy as he or she could into it. They both struggled to overpower the other, the invisible ball of energy shifting towards Jacen for a few centimeters, then shifting dangerously close to Jaina, and then to the other opponent. The struggle continued on for what seemed like hours, the two siblings pouring every bit of power that they could spare into their attack.

Then, with an explosion of Force power, it was over. The two pushes overpowered the two that sought to control it, sending them across the room. Jacen hit the ground, the quick jarring motion sending sharp jolts of pain from his wounded side as he violently landed. Jaina, was slightly more fortunate as her upper body slammed into the corpse of Lumiya; the mixture of metal prosthetics and flesh slightly cushioning her fall. The two lightsabers, jarred loose from the impact, rolled across the floor.

Bodies aching from the wounds received in battle, the two siblings slowly got to their feet. Both of them knew that the next attack would be the end of the battle, each of them picturing themselves still standing at the end of it. Using the Force, each of them called their lightsabers back into their hand, igniting the colored blades.

The two stared at each other, studying every single move that the other made. Jaina hesitantly raised her lightsaber in a salute to Jacen as she readied herself for the attack. The room was silent, save for the sounds of the lightsabers humming. It was dark, save for the faint illumination that hung several meters above the ceiling.

Then, the two combatants—the Sword of the Jedi and the future of the Sith Order—raced towards each other, lightsabers held close to their bodies, ready to strike. Their footsteps echoed throughout the room, providing a slight change in audible scenery.

Their lightsabers flashed as the two passed each other, one of the combatants feeling the slight resistance of a lightsaber meeting flesh as he or she passed their opponent. The other felt nothing. The two passed each other, not stopping until they were three meters away from each other.

Both stood for what seemed like ages, standing perfectly still like actors in an old Holofilm. The lightsaber of the one struck then hit the ground, deactivating in midair. Then, its owner collapsed onto the cold floor of the asteroid.


	3. Chapter 3

The Sword Falls pt. 3 of 3

The sound of lightsabers humming in the room—combined with both of the combatants struggling to bring enough air into their lung—were the only sounds that could be heard inside of the room. The fighters—brother and sister—stood nearly back to back, separated from each other by the span of about two or three meters. Most of their lives they had fought together, but on this dark day they had been fighting each other. One had just killed the other.

It had started a day ago, when the Sith Lord Jacen Solo had attempted to kill Tenel Ka, the woman that he had loved since childhood and who had been the mother of his only child. It ended a few seconds ago.

Then the lightsaber of the fatally injured sibling fell to the ground, its green blade extinguishing before the metallic hilt hit the ground. Jacen Solo could barely comprehend what had just happened. _How?_ He mentally questioned as the original wound on his side opened further and deeper into his body. His strength failed him, causing his knees to buckle under his weight. He then collapsed to the ground, barely feeling the cold floor against his body.

Jaina stood where she was for a second, holding her lightsaber in one hand at her side. She waited for another wound to suddenly make itself known upon her, an agonizing wait that ended a few seconds later. Tears sprung to her eyes as she heard—and felt—Jacen fall to the floor, his life slowly leaking out from him. She removed her thumb from the activation stub on her lightsaber, extinguishing the violet blade that had just done its duty.

Hooking the hilt to her belt, she rushed over to the fallen body of her brother, hoping that maybe he could see the error of his ways in his final moments.

"Jacen," she said, cradling his head in her arms. "Can you hear me?"

His eyes opened slightly, one tear of pain falling out of the nearest eye. He opened his mouth, trying to say something but only non-lingual sound escaped his lips. He kept trying, filling Jaina's heart with hope.

"C…Curse…you…J—Jedi…" he finally managed to spit out with his last breath, causing Jaina's spirits to fall. As she felt her brother die—both physically and through the Force—she knew that he had died unredeemed. The monster that he had become had truly destroyed the good person that he had once been years ago. Tears fell freely from her eyes, the sadness of having been forced to kill him nearly overcoming her. It would be easy, she thought, for the dark side to creep in on her while she was so vulnerable. It would be easy to lash out against her uncle, who had failed to see this happening.

She pushed those dark thoughts away almost as quick as they arrived. She would not fall to the dark side again. Not because of this. It would Jacen's final victory, she grimly thought.

The adrenaline in her bloodstream slowly wore out, increasing the ever present pain that her wound caused, forcing her to stay seated on the ground, unable to walk out of there. Maybe that had been one of Jacen's cruel victories, she wondered as she tried to crawl her way back to the _Rock Dragon_. It would be entirely possible for her to die on this asteroid, with no one to find out her final location.

"By the Force, Jaina!" she heard a familiar voice say almost instantly later. Her muscles ached as she tried to move them, forcing her to realize that she had probably blacked out. A mind that was completely familiar to her—for they still had their moments when it was completely shared—then touched her own, trying to discern if she was alive or dead.

The intruder wore a simple pilot's jumpsuit, an ignited orange bladed lightsaber in his hand, ready to defend her from Jacen. He wore his long black hair tied at the nape of his neck. "Zekk!" she called out. He rushed to her immediately.

"Are you okay?" he asked, quickly glancing over her wounded side. His green eyes scanned the room for any threats, pausing over the bodies of Jacen and Lumiya for a few additional seconds. Through the Force he probed them, making sure that—like a horror holofilm villain—they wouldn't leap up to attack them. Satisfied that both of the Sith were truly dead, he returned his attention to Jaina. "I've got the _Lightning Rod _here, I can put you in the medbay and take you back to Ossus."

"How?" Jaina asked as he gently lifted her up, throwing one of her shoulders over his neck.

"Your sabotage to my ship didn't last that long," Zekk replied. "That tracking beacon that the _Rock Dragon_ has on it was a great help as well."

"Had to do it alone," Jaina said as they reached the open boarding ramp of _Lightning Rod_. "Destroy this place, Zekk," she added. "We can't let anyone else come under their influences."

"I'll tell Master Farlander, he's probably the one that has the most clout with the Alliance military at the moment," Zekk replied. "Don't worry, Jaina. Everything's going to be fine."

It was hard for her to look into the innocent eyes of Allana, knowing what she had done to the toddler's father. It had been three weeks since Jaina had survived her hellish duel with her brother, and the galaxy was slowly beginning to come out of the stupor that the Sith had caused. The Corellian conflict was still going on, but diplomacy was actually beginning to take effect once the schemers had been thrown out of office thanks to a large sweep of the government by Alpha Blue.

Her parents had been devastated by the news, although they had been expecting it ever since Zekk frantically commed them after Jaina had set off after Jacen. Leia had said when she first felt Jacen die it was like a weight crushing down on her, only to increase in mass when she felt Jaina blackout from her injuries. For a moment, she had been certain that all three of her children had been killed, two of them by their own hands. It had been a relief when they found out that Jaina had been only injured, and was being cared for at Ossus' medical center.

Now Allana was sitting inside of a small room in the Hapan palace, her mother a few rooms away finally able to walk again. The young girl—princess of Hapes and first-in-line to the throne—had gone through a lot in the past few weeks, and now this news had to be broken to her.

"Do you remember your father?" Jaina asked.

"He attacked mommy," the little girl replied. "Why did he do that?"

Jaina gestured for her niece to come closer, and then picked up the young girl and placed her on her lap when she complied. "He wasn't himself," Jaina replied, trying to censor the story so it could be understandable to such a young child. "He wasn't thinking about you or your mom at the time."

"Can he get better?" Allana asked, prompting Jaina to begin crying. _She can't possibly understand what death means at such a young age,_ Jaina thought, sniffling slightly. _And how can she take the fact that I couldn't save him?_

"No, he can't," Jaina finally replied. "You won't see him again, but I want you to know that he loved you." It was lie—possibly—and Jaina knew it, but she couldn't expose Allana to the truth so soon. "Just know that he can never hurt you or your mother ever again."


End file.
